Bobby Jindal sworn in as Louisiana Governor

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cannot be the last thing we do. It cannot be the second or third thing we do. It must be the first thing we do. Our biggest obstacle in the past must become our first victory toward a brighter future," he said.

Jindal made only passing reference to Katrina and Rita, and focused instead on his signature pledge to strengthen ethics laws and build "a Louisiana where incompetence is not a synonym for government."

"We will come to this Capitol to make a clean break with the past. To give Louisiana the highest standards for accountability anywhere in the nation," Jindal said.

"To take our government 180 degrees from the darkest chapters of its past."

Helping him implement his agenda is a Legislature filled with newly elected members, particularly in the House of Representatives, thanks largely to a term limits law that took effect last year.

There are 59 new members in the 105-member House, plus at least a dozen more with less than a full term in office under their belts.

The 39-member Senate, by contrast, has only four new members with no prior legislative experience, along with several who moved to the upper chamber after serving, in some cases for decades, in the House.

Jindal's first acknowledgment of the storm devastation came about halfway through the address, when he directed his message to "living rooms scattered across Houston and Atlanta and Dallas, where former Louisianians now live."

"We must bring them home," Jindal said. "Wherever you are today hearing my voice, to my fellow Louisianans, those gathered here at the Capitol, to those inside our borders and outside, I ask you to come home. Come home in person. Or send home your commitment. Make Louisiana's rebirth your own priority".

Jindal's swearing-in as Louisiana's 55th chief executive since becoming a state in 1812 is historic by several measures.

The son of immigrants, he is the first person of Indian descent to be elected chief executive of an American state.

At 36, he is the nation's youngest governor, and the third youngest in Louisiana history, trailing only Henry Clay Warmoth, who was 26 at the time of his election, and Huey P. Long, who was 35.

With his convincing victory in October, Jindal became the first candidate since Louisiana's 1974 Constitution set up the current open primary system that the winner of the governor's race captured an open seat without a runoff.